Reeves was challenged by Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning on the fact that the government in February subsumed the intelligence budget into its account of total defence spending. Therefore ballooning the figure…
“Increasingly intelligence is an important part of our defence, intelligence when it comes to Russian operations for example. But that takes us to 2.6% because we were spending 0.1%.”
Intelligence is not even fully included in NATO definition. If you actually do the calculations on planned spending figures in the Spending Review document the “Single Intelligence Account” will by 2027/28 account for 0.186% of GDP, which is significantly higher than the 0.1% Reeves has claimed in this interview. Crucially defence spending minus intelligence, which was only added in February, is only penned in at 2.41% by the same time…
Guido walked through the figures with the government, who did not dispute them. A government spokesperson said:
“Our position remains that we’ll increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from 2027. In addition to this, and as announced by the PM, recognising the increasingly vital role they play in our national security, the government will increase the share of intelligence spending counting towards NATO-qualifying expenditure, to 2.6% of GDP.”
Without the February intelligence stunt defence spending would be significantly below the stated government target. Smoke and mirrors…
Read the full calculations below:
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”